Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

When Grady reaches the end of our section, he turns, moving backward. “Oh, and did I mention that there are two groups of you out here? The other is on the far side of the forest, and while your dragons will be hunting them, their dragons are hunting you. A few unbondeds joined, too.” The fuck? My stomach hollows. Almost every infantry cadet looks faint, and one wobbles where he stands. “Infantry, the riders are going to need to lean on your land nav expertise, but you won’t live without them should you encounter a dragon.” Grady looks the eight of us in the eye as he backs away. “Try and see that most of them make it out of here, will you?” He flashes a grin and turns around, walking into the forest with the infantry professor, leaving us in the middle of the fucking woods without supplies or our dragons. We stare at the infantry squad. The infantry squad stares at us. The healers look comically uncomfortable, and the scribe already has a notebook out, pencil at the ready. “Well, this should be a good time had by all,” Ridoc mutters. “Did he insinuate that we could die?” the smaller of the healers asks, his olive skin paling. “Piss off the dragons and find out,” Sawyer replies. “You’ll be all right”—I look for his name tag—“Dyre.”